


First Impression

by radioactive_storm (storm_aurora)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: 5+1, Alternate Universes, Attempted Kidnapping, First Meetings, Gen, Identity Reveal, Inspirational Speeches, Kid Peter Parker, Nerd Peter Parker, Nerd Tony Stark, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Has A Heart, only in the first chapter tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-02-16 00:23:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21498790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storm_aurora/pseuds/radioactive_storm
Summary: You know how the story goes. Genius billionaire superhero recruits spider-kid for German airport fight and winds up becoming his superhero mentor; the rest is history.But what if things played out a little differently, and these two didn't meet for the first time in a little apartment in Queens?Peter Parker still has a way of making a good first impression.Or, 5 times Peter Parker introduced himself to Tony Stark, and 1 time he needed no introduction.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 72
Kudos: 344
Collections: Peter Parker's Tales





	1. Lucky Enough

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing for this fandom, so I'm still getting used to writing with these characters and this world. And yet here I am, delving into my favorite kind of alternate universe: "canon a little bit to the left".
> 
> In case the summary and tags weren't clear enough, the way this story works is simple. Each chapter is a separate one-shot, taking place in a separate alternate universe, where something happened to make Tony and Peter meet earlier (or later) than they did in canon. Depending on how well they're received, I might write follow-up stories to certain chapters...especially this one ;)
> 
> Oh, and all chapter titles are taken from [KISEKI](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/KISEKI).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Stark Expo grounds, 2010. During the events of Iron Man 2.**

Tony landed gracefully on the grounds of the Expo – or, as gracefully as he could land while carrying his girlfriend in a metal suit. Pepper slid out of his arms as soon as he landed, only stumbling a bit before regaining her balance. “Never,” she said, breathing shakily, “ever, _ever_ , carry me with that suit again.”

Tony chuckled. “As you wish, Ms. Potts.”

She took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. Then she straightened up and folded her arms, slipping back into her usual professional demeanor. “I’m going to go check with security to make sure everything’s under control. You can have a seat over there,” she nodded to a bench a few feet away, “if you’d like to wait for me, or…”

Pepper trailed off, and her brow creased in confusion. “What?” Tony asked, following her gaze to the bench. It looked like a perfectly ordinary wooden bench with a metal frame. Smirking, he added, “Iron Man’s not afraid of a little splinter.”

“Tony.” The sharpness with which Pepper said his name could rival a splinter, and the smirk fell off his face. “There’s something under there.”

If he hadn’t known to look for it, Tony wouldn’t have spotted the dark shape under the bench – slightly darker than the shadows surrounding it. Leave it to eagle-eyed Pepper to notice such an imperceptible detail. However, because the bench was shrouded in shadow, he couldn’t tell what the shadow was. It could have been a cowering animal, an abandoned backpack, or a dead body, and Tony wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

He began to walk towards the bench. “Tony, what are you doing?” Pepper hissed.

“Relax,” Tony said, glancing back at her over his shoulder. “I’m 98% certain that it’s not dangerous. And if it is, well…” He shrugged. “I _am_ wearing a weaponized suit of armor.”

Apparently, this was enough to convince Pepper that it wasn’t a threat, because she quickly caught up to Tony in a couple of strides. They approached the bench together. As they got closer, Tony was able to make out some features of the object under the bench – an arm, and a leg, and a shoe…

Oh. It was a _kid_.

Pepper and Tony crouched on the ground in front of the bench to get a better look at the kid. He was hunched on the ground with his forearms tucked underneath his torso and his legs curled up to his chest – or, at least, as close to his chest as they could get while being stuck under the seat of a bench.

“Hi there,” Pepper said gently, more gently than Tony had ever heard her speak before. “Can you come out from under there, sweetie?”

The kid sniffled and turned his head to look at her. That’s when Tony realized that the kid was wearing an Iron Man helmet. He blinked. The kid was also wearing a dark blue jacket and jeans, but surely that was just a coincidence. There were probably loads of kids wearing similar clothes and an Iron Man helmet to the Stark Expo. This couldn’t be the same kid that had tried to stand up to one of Hammer’s drones – the kid that Tony had saved from getting blown up by said drone – right?

“No,” the kid finally said. His voice was muffled by the Iron Man helmet, but it was steadier than Tony expected from a kid who had been crying.

“Why not?” Pepper asked.

The kid didn’t answer, instead shifting further back under the bench. To do so, he had to move a hand out from under his body, and Tony noticed that he was wearing a red fingerless glove – like a homemade gauntlet. Just like the one that Drone Kid had been wearing.

Meaning this _was_ Drone Kid.

What were the odds?

“I wouldn’t have pegged you as the type to hide under a bench, kid.”

The kid’s head jerked towards him, as if he hadn’t realized that Tony was there at all. “I…Iron Man?”

“The one and only,” Tony said, giving the kid a big press smile. “Good to see you again, Drone Kid.”

“Tony, you know this boy?” Pepper whispered, a hint of suspicion in her tone.

Tony ignored her and extended a hand towards the kid. “C’mon, kid, this suit isn’t built for squatting. Let’s get you out from under there and then we’ll chat. Deal?”

Drone Kid turned his head back towards the ground and mumbled something that was indecipherable behind his helmet. “What was that?” Tony asked.

“I can’t,” he repeated, more audibly this time.

“Why not?”

He sniffled. “M-my ankle hurts.”

“Okay, so?”

Pepper swatted Tony on the shoulder and shot him a glare, which Tony took as his cue to shut up. “Why does your ankle hurt?” she asked kindly.

“I tripped,” he said quietly. “And…I guess I landed on it funny? A-and there were lots of people around, and I wanted to get out of everybody’s way, and, and…so I hid under here.”

“That was a smart move,” Pepper praised him. “Now, we’ll help you get out from under there. Just sit tight for a minute, okay?”

Drone Kid glanced up at Tony, staring at him for a few moments. Tony stared back, raising an eyebrow at him. “Okay,” he finally said.

Pepper stood up and Tony followed suit. “Before you say anything,” she whispered crossly, “remember that he is a _child_ , Tony. You can’t just tell him to grin and bear it. We need to figure out a way to move him out from under there _without_ hurting his ankle more.”

“I have a better idea,” Tony said. He picked up the bench by its seat and back, then walked a few feet away and put it down. He headed back over to Pepper and Drone Kid, grinning smugly. “Super suits, am I right? The guy who invented that should get a medal.”

Without the bench on his back constraining his movements, Drone Kid was able to uncurl himself and sit up without much trouble. He stretched his legs out in front of him and folded his arms in his lap.

“Which ankle is hurting?” Pepper asked, crouching down to his eye level.

“That one,” Drone Kid said, pointing to his left foot.

“May I take a look at it?”

He nodded. Pepper rolled up his pant leg to his knee and rolled down his sock to examine the offending ankle. The area around his ankle was redder than the rest of his leg, but Tony didn’t think it looked too swollen. He was more curious about seeing Drone Kid’s face.

“Hey, kid,” Tony said, crouching down beside him. He rapped his knuckles on the kid’s plastic Iron Man helmet. “Mind if I take this off? I’m starting to feel like I’m looking into a funhouse mirror and I gotta say, I’m not a fan.”

Drone Kid stared at Tony for a few moments. “I can do it,” he finally said.

He looked down and pulled the helmet off of his head, revealing a sweaty mop of curly brown hair. He placed the helmet on the ground beside him and wiped at his eyes for a moment before finally making eye contact with Tony. His eyes were big and brown and slightly red-rimmed, and his face was round and rosy. Almost as soon as he met Tony’s eyes, though, he dropped his gaze to his hands and started fiddling with his gauntlet.

Tony wasn’t the type to think of kids as being implicitly cute, but _shit_. This was a cute kid.

“What’s your name, kid?”

The kid glanced back up at him shyly. “…Peter. Peter Parker.”

Tony grinned and extended a hand. “Tony Stark. Iron Man. Nice to meet you.” Peter shook Tony’s hand and a small smile blossomed on his face.

“Nice to meet you, Peter,” Pepper said, smiling. “I’m Pepper. Now, you ought to get your ankle checked out by someone with actual medical expertise, but I’m sure your parents are worried sick about you by now.”

The smile on Peter’s face faded and he looked back down at his hands. “I, um…I actually…” He mumbled something that neither Tony nor Pepper could make out.

“Speak up, kid,” Tony said. “You actually what?”

Peter glanced at Tony. “I actually…came here with my aunt and uncle.”

“That’s alright,” Pepper said. “I’ll go to security and see if I can find them. Tony, you take Peter to the first aid tent. Hopefully, they haven’t packed up already.”

Pepper strode away in the direction of the nearest security booth. Meanwhile, Tony slid an arm under Peter’s knees and the other behind his back, figuring it to be the best way to carry the kid without jostling his ankle. Peter quickly reached out and clutched his Iron Man helmet tightly to his chest before Tony picked him up. He was lighter than he looked, and with the support of the Iron Man armor, carrying Peter took almost no effort at all. Tony glanced around and spotted a white first aid tent by the entrance to the pavilion that was still occupied, so he headed in that direction.

Peter was fidgeting with his gauntlet again – a nervous habit of his, Tony guessed. Clear sign of a shy kid. For such a shy kid, then, it was pretty brave of him to stand and face that drone instead of running away. It was also a pretty stupid move, but weren’t all kids like that? Tony was impressed by Peter’s courage. He wondered if he should tell the kid that. That was a thing you did with kids, right? Validate their accomplishments? Pepper had done it earlier. Tony figured it couldn’t hurt, and the silence between them was lasting so long it was starting to unnerve him.

“You were pretty brave out there, facing down that drone, kid.”

Peter jerked his head up and stared at Tony with wide eyes. He lowered his gaze a little and some color flushed into his cheeks, but Tony couldn’t miss the little smile on his face at the compliment. “Th-thank you…Mr. Stark.” After a moment’s pause, he added, “And…thank you for saving me.”

Tony shrugged. “I’m Iron Man. That’s what I do.”

He adjusted his grip on Peter to steady the kid a little, bringing one of his hands closer to Peter’s chest. After a few moments, the kid abandoned his fidgeting with his own gauntlet to fiddle with Tony’s. He flipped Tony’s hand over and trailed his fingers over the repulsor, and then tried to slip his thin little kid fingers into the crack between the repulsor and the rest of the glove.

“Hey, hey, don’t break my suit,” Tony complained without making any move to pull his hand away.

Peter looked back up at Tony with his big inquisitive eyes. “Can’t you just build a new one?”

“Of course I _can_ ,” he scoffed. “And I’m sure I will. But I still prefer that the old ones stay in one piece.”

Peter let go of the glove and wrapped both his arms around his helmet. “I think it’s really cool that you built this suit yourself and made yourself a superhero,” he said, a little grin growing on his face. “I wanna build a suit and become a superhero, too!”

“I’m flattered, kid,” Tony said, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. “But if you wanna build things, stick to LEGO for now.”

“I’ve already built all the LEGO sets, Mr. Stark,” Peter said matter-of-factly.

Tony raised an eyebrow. “ _All_ of them?”

“All of them,” Peter confirmed, folding his arms across his chest. His face scrunched up in thought. “Well, all the ones I have, anyways. But I’m pretty sure that’s most of them.”

Tony couldn’t help but chuckle at the kid’s expression. “Guess you need some new LEGO sets, then.”

“Yeah,” Peter hummed. “And when I’m all grown up, _then_ I’ll build myself a superhero suit.”

“Sure thing, squirt. You do that.”

Sometimes, Tony envied the simple way children viewed the world. Envied their ability to have a dream without having to think about how they would make that dream happen. Envied their freedom to think about the future without considering all the pitfalls and valleys they’d have to cross before they could get there. Peter could declare that he was going to become a superhero today, but it hardly mattered in the long run. He’d have forgotten about this whole conversation by tomorrow.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter’s voice broke Tony out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, kid?”

“Is it hard being a superhero?”

Tony blinked and looked down at the kid. He was staring into the eyes of his plastic Iron Man helmet. “Sometimes,” Tony admitted.

Peter looked up at Tony, a pensive expression on his face. “It would be easier if you weren’t the only superhero,” he said.

“Yeah, maybe it would.”

They finally arrived at the first aid tent, where the medics were beginning to pack up their supplies. “Hey, doc,” Tony called. “Got time for one last patient?”

The closest medic, a pretty young lady with bubblegum pink hair, paused in her work to look at Tony and Peter. To Tony’s surprise, Peter almost immediately turned and buried his face in Tony’s shoulder. It couldn’t have been comfortable pressing his face up against the cold Iron Man armor, but that obviously wasn’t stopping Peter.

“Mr. – Mr. Stark?” the medic stammered, her wide eyes flitting between Tony and Peter. Tony couldn’t tell if she was so surprised to see Tony Stark at her first aid tent or to see Tony Stark carrying a kid whose face was buried in his shoulder.

Probably both.

“The kid hurt his ankle,” Tony said, tapping his fingers on the offending limb. “I wanted to make sure it’s nothing too serious.”

“R-right, of course,” the medic said. She turned around and cleared some supplies off of a folding chair. “Put him down here, please,” she called over her shoulder, carrying the supplies to the medic on the opposite side of the tent.

Tony gently set Peter down on the chair and started to pull away, only to discover that the kid had grabbed hold of his hand and was latched on tight. “Kid,” Tony said, squeezing Peter’s hand a little. “You gotta let go. I have to give the pretty…nice nurse room to check out your ankle. Then we can go find Pepper and your aunt and uncle. Sound good?”

Peter slowly nodded and let go of Tony’s hand. He bit down on his lower lip like he wanted to say something but was too afraid to say it. His gaze flitted to the side for a moment before returning to Tony.

“Mr. Stark,” he said hesitantly, “can you…?” He held out his Iron Man helmet. Taking the hint, Tony took the helmet from him just as the medic returned.

“Hi there, sweetie!” she said to Peter in an overly cheerful tone. “Can you tell me your name?”

If Tony had thought Peter was shyer once he took off his helmet, that was nothing compared to watching him interact with the medic. He clammed up completely, not saying a single word in response to her questions. He barely looked in her direction at all, and when he did, he wouldn’t look her in the eye. The fidgeting with his gauntlets also made a comeback. Watching Peter interact with the medic, Tony could hardly believe that this was the same kid who stood up to one of Justin Hammer’s drones.

And for some reason, it seemed like the kid trusted _him_. Between talking with Tony on the walk over, burying his face in Tony’s shoulder, holding on to Tony’s hand, and asking Tony to hold his precious Iron Man helmet, Peter clearly felt a lot more comfortable around Tony than he did around the medics. Tony guessed that being saved by your hero might do that to you.

Tony felt a twinge of something – guilt? fear? pity? – at the thought of being Peter’s hero. At the same time, he felt a little swell of something happier at the idea that Peter trusted him. Most of all, he felt an overwhelming desire to not let the kid down.

How did he start feeling so strongly about this kid he just met?

“Mr. Stark?”

Tony blinked. When did the medic start talking to him? “Come again?”

“I said, I think it’s just a sprain,” she repeated. “I’ve wrapped it with a pressure bandage to be safe, but unless it starts swelling more, that can come off tomorrow. He should take it easy on that leg for a few days, but I think he’ll be fine to go to P.E. on Monday.”

Tony nodded, feeling a little awkward to be told the kinds of things that really should have been told to the kid’s parents. But evidently, Peter’s parents weren’t even here, so he’d have to relay the information to his aunt and uncle instead. As the medic headed back to packing up, Tony held the Iron Man helmet out to Peter. The kid took it eagerly.

“Ready to go, kid?” Tony asked. Peter nodded.

Given his position sitting up in the chair, it would have been awkward for Tony to pick up Peter in a bridal carry again. Instead, he hoisted the kid up by his armpits and settled him on his hip, wrapping an arm around Peter’s back to keep him secure. Peter wrapped an arm around Tony’s neck and used the other to hold his helmet to Tony’s chest. His hand settled right over the arc reactor. Then, the pair headed off in search of the security booth.

Tony hadn’t been walking long before he felt soft hair brushing against his cheek. He glanced to the side and saw that Peter had laid his head on Tony’s shoulder, and his eyes were fluttering closed. Every so often they’d shut completely for a moment and Peter’s head would start to droop forwards before they flew open and he jolted back to alertness. A soft smile snuck onto Tony’s face as a surge of fondness for the boy flooded through him. He was such a cute kid.

When Tony glanced away from Peter, he saw Pepper in the distance with a man and a woman Tony didn’t recognize. He was internally debating whether or not he should disturb Peter’s fight against sleep to see if he recognized them when the kid bolted upright again and didn’t start to droop this time. From the way Peter’s face had lit up brighter than an arc reactor, Tony guessed that these were his aunt and uncle.

Peter started to wriggle out of Tony’s grasp. “Whoa, whoa, slow down there, kiddo,” Tony said, tightening his grip on the squirming child. “Remember what the good doc said? Take it easy on that ankle. No sprinting around. Yeah?”

Thankfully, Peter actually listened to him and stopped struggling to get down. He pulled his right hand away from Tony’s chest as if to start waving at them, only to discover that this meant he was no longer holding onto his helmet. It started to fall. Fortunately, Tony’s reflexes were quick enough that he was able to catch the helmet with his left hand before it had fallen too far, so he was carrying Peter on his right hip and Peter’s helmet on his left.

Satisfied that his helmet was secure, Peter started waving his right arm like a madman in his aunt and uncle’s direction. “Uncle Ben! Aunt May!” he hollered.

The yelling was apparently enough to get their attention, because the couple finally looked in their direction and started to quicken their pace. Pepper followed close behind. Peter’s excitement was contagious, and Tony found himself grinning as they got closer to his aunt and uncle. Once they were only a few feet away, he finally set Peter down and let the kid sprint the short distance into his aunt’s arms.

“Peter! Oh my God, baby, we were so worried about you,” his aunt – May – gasped, pulling back to cup Peter’s face in her hands. She pressed a quick kiss to Peter’s forehead and let him go so his uncle – Ben – could give him a hug as well. “Are you okay? Ms. Potts said you had to go to the first aid tent. It’s your ankle, right? Is it okay for you to be walking on it?”

“I’m _fine_ , Aunt May!” Peter protested, bouncing on the balls of his feet to demonstrate. He immediately winced in pain. “Ow. Okay, I’m mostly fine.”

Ben chuckled and ruffled Peter’s hair. “I’m glad. Mostly fine is better than not fine at all.”

“Uncle Ben! Uncle Ben, it was so cool!” Peter exclaimed, bouncing up and down on his good foot. “The robots were walking around, all menacing-like, and then one of them looked at me like it was gonna shoot me! And I was like, not if I shoot it first! And then Mr. Stark showed up, and he was like, reeeeee, whoosh! And the robot was like, kabloom! And then he went like, ‘nice work, kid’, and then…”

Tony was so caught up in Peter’s enthusiastic retelling of their first encounter – complete with hand motions for emphasis – that he didn’t notice Peter’s aunt walking over to him until she was close enough to tap him on the shoulder.

“Mr. Stark,” she said. She had an easy, soft smile on her face, and once she had Tony’s attention, she held a hand out to him. “May Parker.”

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Parker,” Tony said, shaking May’s hand.

“Thank you so much for looking out for Peter,” May said. “Ben and I have been taking care of him ever since his parents died a couple years back. We love him like our own…” She dipped her head. “We’d be devastated if anything happened to him.”

“He’s a smart kid with a good heart,” Tony said, glancing over at Peter as a faint smile snuck its way onto his face. “The world could use more people like that.”

“Alright, I think that’s enough for tonight,” Ben announced as Peter interrupted his own story with a huge yawn. “This little rascal needs to get to bed, yeah?”

“But I’m not tired,” Peter protested, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Sure you’re not, squirt,” Ben said with amusement.

“Say good-bye to Mr. Stark, Peter,” May added. “Then we’ll hit the road.”

Peter turned around to face Tony, and before he could say anything, Peter had darted forward and wrapped his arms around Tony’s waist. “Thank you, Mr. Stark,” Peter mumbled into his stomach. “For everything.”

Tony wrapped one arm around Peter and patted him on the head with the other. “Stay outta trouble, kid,” he said gruffly.

Peter squeezed Tony’s waist tighter. “Bye, Mr. Stark.”

“Bye, Pete.”

Tony watched the Parkers go, Peter waving good-bye to Tony over his uncle’s shoulder. Only once they were out of sight did he turn back to Pepper. She was looking at him with a coy smile. “What?” Tony asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Pepper said, dismissing the expression with a shake of her head. “I just didn’t realize you were so good with kids, Mr. Stark.”

Tony shrugged, sliding his gaze away from Pepper. “I like Peter. He’s a good kid.”

And if Tony looked up Ben and May Parker’s address the next time he was in New York and stopped by their apartment to pay little Peter a visit, who was going to know?


	2. Show Our Gratitude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **A street in Queens, 2016. A few months before Civil War.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the support on the first chapter! I hope you enjoy this one just as much <3
> 
> As a reminder in case you've forgotten, each of these chapters takes place in a separate alternate universe, completely independent from the others. And the chapter title is again taken from KISEKI.

A ray of sunlight gleamed directly into Tony’s eyes when he jogged around the street corner. Fortunately, he was already wearing a pair of sunglasses to make his face a little less immediately recognizable, so the light didn’t blind him. The gentle sunshine warmed his skin and coat, lessening the bite of the crisp morning air.

New York hadn’t seen sunlight in ages, so the recent streak of sunny weather was certainly welcome. Combined with temperatures that were actually above freezing, it seemed like winter was finally starting to relax its ice-cold grip on the city. For example, the slush that had been piled up on the sidewalks for over a week had finally melted. Tony had tried jogging in slush last week. It did not go very well. He hoped that this good weather would last so he could get back to jogging regularly again.

Tony had gotten hooked on jogging the past fall, when Pepper had decided to start going on weekly jogs and dragged Tony along with her. She had read an article that said jogging was a good stress reliever, and, in her words, “heaven knows we could both use a bit of stress relieved.” They started out with just quick trips around the block, but eventually branched out to longer jogs, even traveling as far as Queens.

Ironically enough, Pepper eventually got tired of waking up early every Saturday morning to go jogging. She didn’t mind the occasional jog around Central Park, but regular jogging sessions just made her more stressed out. Tony, on the other hand, really enjoyed it – he liked spending time in a less crowded area of the city, and it was a great way to clear his mind and come up with ideas for suit upgrades, SI projects, or anything else that struck his fancy.

Tony’s early-morning jogs had started to become a point of contention between him and his friends, though. While they were glad to see him have a hobby that was good for his health, they didn’t think it was a good idea for someone as high-profile as Tony Stark to be running through the streets of Queens by himself. In Tony’s professional and correct opinion, he didn’t need a bodyguard just to go jogging. He’s Iron Man, for crying out loud. He could defend himself. Besides, Happy, Rhodey, and Pepper were never even awake by the time that Tony came back from his jogs, so they clearly weren’t _that_ concerned about it.

Tony always loved how peaceful and quiet Queens was in the morning, and this morning was no exception. A pair of pigeons flew overhead; a young lady walking her dog passed Tony from behind; the dog sniffed at a kid walking along the sidewalk towards them, and the kid patted it on the head. There were no crowds of tourists hogging the sidewalk, no street vendors selling their wares on every corner, no cars driving on the road. All was calm and quiet.

In fact…it was almost _too_ quiet.

Just as the thought crossed Tony’s mind, he felt something prick the back of his neck. He whirled around, deploying the nanotech gauntlet from his watch, preparing to fend off his attackers. But he was already starting to feel dizzy, and his arms felt so heavy, too heavy to fire a repulsor blast – a sonic pulse – anything. His vision blurred, his sunglasses slipped off his face, and he collapsed onto the pavement.

His last coherent thought was that maybe his friends had been on to something with that whole “don’t go jogging by yourself” thing after all.

* * *

Tony came back to awareness slowly. The first thing he noticed was that his arm and face were aching. The second thing he noticed was that his kidnappers had left him on a surprisingly comfortable bed – just as comfortable as the one in his Manhattan penthouse.

He laid still for a few moments, listening for any sounds of his kidnappers nearby. The best way to figure out what they wanted was by eavesdropping on them when they thought he was asleep, after all. When he heard nothing, he opened his eyes to take in his surroundings.

There was a bookshelf full of more trinkets and tools than books…just like in the bedroom of the penthouse. There was an old dresser carved with ornate wooden designs…just like in the bedroom of the penthouse. There was a piece of Iron Man canvas art propped up against the side of the dresser…just like in the bedroom of the penthouse.

Tony distinctly remembered being ambushed and tranquilized while on his usual jogging route. People who ambush and tranquilize someone are usually trying to kidnap them, right? So why did it look like he just woke up exactly where he went to sleep last night?

Perhaps his kidnappers were planning on using some kind of torture or mental manipulation technique by holding him in a cell that looked like home. Or, more likely, he had never been getting kidnapped at all.

Tony slid off the bed and stretched his arms. His right arm and face were still aching, but that could easily have been because he slept on them funny. He glanced over at the clock; it was well past noon. He must have slept in and just dreamed that he went out jogging and got kidnapped. That made more sense than somehow magically getting rescued before he even regained consciousness.

He headed out towards the living room and saw his girlfriend sitting on the couch. “Pep, I had the weirdest dream last night,” he said.

Pepper shifted on the couch and turned to face him, and Tony did a double take. Pepper was not alone on the couch. She was sitting next to a kid. A weirdly familiar kid. Weirdly familiar, because this kid looked exactly like the kid that Tony had seen in Queens in his dream last night.

Tony raised both eyebrows as he looked at Pepper. “Am I still dreaming, or is there a child sitting on my sofa?”

“H-h…hi,” the kid stammered out. He sat very stiffly, with his hands tucked under his armpits, but his eyes were as wide as washers. “I-I’m Peter. P-Parker.”

Tony ignored the kid and addressed his girlfriend again. “Pep. Why is there a child sitting on my sofa?”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “First of all, it’s _our_ sofa. Second of all, this _child_ saved your life this morning.”

“No, really, I didn’t do that much,” the kid immediately interjected. “All I did was call an ambulance.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, honey,” Pepper said, placing a hand on Peter’s shoulder. Then she turned back to face Tony. “Peter saw those men try to kidnap you, stopped to call 911, and stayed with you until I got to the hospital. Who knows what could have happened if he’d just left you there unconscious?”

“Probably would’ve actually gotten kidnapped,” Tony said, processing the realization that he didn’t dream up the morning’s events. He crossed his arms, walked over to the coffee table, and sat down on it so he could face Pepper and Peter directly. “What happened to the kidnappers?”

“They were arrested. The police are interrogating them now,” Pepper answered. “Last I heard, they think they had other accomplices, since they were able to barricade traffic for a few blocks around the area where they tried to kidnap you.”

“Yeah, not what I meant,” Tony said, shaking his head. “How’d they get arrested? I went full Sleeping Beauty before I could do anything. This skinny little twelve-year-old” – he gestured to Peter – “couldn’t have knocked them out himself.”

“I’m fourteen!” Peter protested.

Pepper frowned. “The kidnappers were already unconscious by the time the paramedics and police arrived.” She looked at Peter, a hint of distrust crossing her face. “You didn’t mention anything about anyone else getting involved.”

“I didn’t realize anything was wrong until Mr. Stark collapsed and someone started dragging him into the alleyway,” Peter said. He shifted his arms a little and looked at the back of the couch. “Then, um…the Spider-Man showed up and beat up the kidnappers.”

“ _Who?_ ” Tony and Pepper asked at the same time.

“Um, here…” Peter pulled out his phone and unlocked it, then stared at the screen for a few moments. He chewed on his bottom lip for a few moments. Finally, he glanced up at Pepper and Tony. “Um, I…I don’t mean to be rude, but…could – could I use your Wi-Fi? Please?”

Tony furrowed his brow. “Why on _Earth_ –?”

“I’m sorry! If – if it’s too much of a hassle, I get it,” the kid continued quickly, “but it’s just that – I was gonna show you a video, but, that eats up a lot of data, and, we’ve almost hit our limit for this month and I really don’t want to go over because then May has to pay extra and I know that sounds like a really dumb reason, especially since you’re, like, the richest person on the _planet_ but–”

“Kid, stop. Just…stop,” Tony interrupted, holding up a hand, and Peter’s mouth snapped shut. “What’s the video called?”

“Um… ‘Spider-man stops speeding car in Queens’. It’s on YouTube,” Peter said hesitantly.

“FRIDAY, find that video and pull it up in the living room,” Tony ordered, standing up from the coffee table.

“Right away,” the AI responded.

Above the TV stand opposite the couch, a hologram flickered to life with a slightly blurry image of a street that could’ve been in Queens. Tony slipped onto the couch beside Pepper just as the video began to play. The footage was fairly shaky at first, but eventually steadied out to show a car speeding down the street in the direction of the cameraperson.

“Holy shit, dude, that car’s not stopping at all,” said a voice offscreen as the car blew through a red light. It zoomed past the camera, which rotated in order to keep the car in sight.

“Shit!” shouted a second voice, obviously noticing the same thing Tony did – the car wasn’t slowing down, and there was a bus crossing the next intersection. The car was going to T-bone that bus.

But just seconds before they would have collided, a red and blue figure leaped down in front of the car. “What the hell?” exclaimed the first voice. The angle and position of the camera made it hard to see exactly what happened next, but the result was clear: the red-and-blue-clad figure had stopped the car just before it collided with the bus.

The camerawork got shaky again as the person behind the camera started running to get a closer look at the scene, but they stopped after only a few seconds. The figure – that Tony could now make out as what looked like a person in a red hoodie and blue sweats – darted over to the wall of the nearest building and _climbed straight up the side_.

“Oh my God,” Pepper breathed, but the video wasn’t over yet.

“Dude, check this out!” called the first voice, and the camera turned back towards the stopped car. A young woman was standing beside the driver’s door of the car, peering inside.

The cameraman approached the car and looked inside with the camera. “What the hell,” he whispered, reaching a hand inside. The driver was unconscious, possibly knocked out by the car’s airbags deploying, and he and the seat were covered in a stringy white substance. The cameraman touched one of the threads and tugged on it. “It’s sticky,” he said. “Like a spiderweb.”

“What kind of spider makes a web this big?” asked the woman incredulously.

“Not a spider,” said the cameraman. “A spider human. A spider-man.”

The video ended on that comment. “So. The ‘Spider-Man’ is some kind of…superpowered traffic cop?” Tony said, raising an eyebrow.

“He’s a vigilante,” Peter corrected him. “He stops crime and saves people. He’s got super strength, he can climb on walls, and he shoots webs from his wrists.”

“He looks like he’s wearing pajamas.”

“Tony!” Pepper said exasperatedly, gently smacking him on the arm. “Don’t be rude. Speaking of which, you still haven’t thanked Peter yet.”

Tony sighed. As much as he hated to admit to needing help from a stranger, he had definitely been in need of help that morning. He also knew that it was pretty kind of the kid to actually stop and help him. Most people would just try to ignore it and walk by, thinking that it’s not their responsibility to help…but this kid didn’t. And that was pretty special. He stood up, in front of Peter, put a hand on his shoulder. The kid looked up at him. “Thanks for helping me out, kid. It was very considerate of you.”

Peter ducked his head. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay, sir.”

“How are you feeling now, Tony?” Pepper asked.

“Perfectly fine,” Tony said, stretching his arms up over his head. His stomach growled. “But I’m _starving_.”

“Alright, I’ll go make us some lunch,” Pepper said, heading in the direction of the kitchen. “Just so you know, I already told Peter that he’s welcome to stay and eat with us.”

Tony grunted in acknowledgement. “You’ve got the TV all to yourself, kid,” he told Peter. “FRIDAY’ll play any channel under the sun if you ask. Go watch Disney Channel, or whatever it is the kids are into these days.”

He followed Pepper into the kitchen and leaned on the island, watching his girlfriend as she pulled ingredients out of the cabinet. “What’s on the menu today, Ms. Potts?” he asked.

“I thought I’d make my homemade macaroni and cheese,” she replied. “It’s simple and easy, and I already made sure Peter’s not allergic.”

“Seems like you and Peter were having some real nice conversations while I was in there catching up on my beauty sleep,” Tony observed.

Pepper grabbed a pot from beneath the stove and brought it over to the sink. She began to fill it with water as she said, “Well, he is a pretty sweet boy. He’s very excitable, and he’s a big fan of yours.”

“Yeah, yeah. All the kids love Iron Man,” Tony drawled, rolling his eyes.

Pepper shut off the faucet and turned to face Tony. “He’s not just a fan of Iron Man, Tony. He’s a fan of Tony Stark.”

“Oh, right, my bad,” Tony said sarcastically as Pepper brought the pot over to the stove. “He’s not a fan of _me_ , he’s a fan of _me_. What an important distinction.”

“What I _mean_ ,” Pepper said, turning on the burner, “is that he’s a fan of your inventions, the things you do for SI. He said he’d love to work here one day.”

“Who wouldn’t?” Tony shrugged, hoisting himself up to sit on the counter. Then he smirked. “Now, back up for me, Ms. Potts. What kind of wonderful inventions of mine did he tell you about? Please, spare no detail.”

“Absolutely not,” Pepper said, smacking him on the knee with the bag of macaroni. “Your ego’s big enough as it is. I only mentioned that because I thought you should know how much that kid looks up to you, so please _try_ to be a little nice to him.”

“I’ve been perfectly nice to him!” Tony protested. “I gave him full access to FRIDAY’s TV library. He’ll be happily occupied with that until lunch is–”

“Um…Mr. Stark?”

Tony startled so badly that he nearly fell off the counter. “ _Jesus_ , kid, are you trying to give me a heart attack?” he exclaimed. Peter was standing in the entrance to the kitchen, slightly pink in the face. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Not very long,” he said quickly. “I-I just wondered if I could have some water…”

“Of course you can,” Pepper said sweetly. “Tony, get Peter a glass of water, please.”

Tony gaped at her. “But I–”

“Uh-uh.”

“You–”

“Don’t wanna hear it!”

“But–”

“What did we just talk about?”

Tony sighed. He really didn’t want to leave his comfy perch on the counter just to get the kid a glass of water, especially when Pepper was closer to the glasses _and_ the water, but she was apparently serious about this whole ‘be nicer to the kid’ thing. Reluctantly, he headed to the opposite side of the kitchen and poured a glass of water for Peter. Then, Pepper shooed both of them out of the kitchen so that she could make their lunch in peace.

* * *

Less than half an hour later, Tony, Pepper, and Peter were seated around the table, digging into Pep’s mac and cheese. Tony was a little surprised at how good Peter’s table manners were – the kid had asked for a napkin before even starting the meal, and he was actually _using_ it to wipe his mouth. From what Tony remembered of being a teenager, they were never that polite. The kid even chewed and swallowed his spoonful of macaroni before he spoke.

“This is really good, Miss Potts,” he said. “Thank you for making it.”

“Thank you, Peter,” Pepper said, smiling kindly at him.

“Mm. I agree,” Tony chimed in around a mouthful of food. He swallowed and continued, “Pep’s mac and cheese is the best. Guy Fieri can eat his heart out.”

“So, Peter,” Pepper said, “you’re in high school, right?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m a freshman.”

“What kind of extracurriculars do you do?”

“I’m in the band,” he said. He paused and glanced at Tony; Pepper took that as her cue to ask another question.

“What instrument do you play?”

“Um, I’m a percussionist.”

“Oh, that sounds like fun! So you get to play the drums?”

“Er, well, yeah, sometimes, but…it’s more than just that. I play a bunch of different instruments. It all depends on the song…”

It was around this point that Tony started to zone out. It wasn’t that he thought what Peter had to say was _boring_ , it was just…not interesting to _him_. He’d never played any instruments besides the piano, and he’d definitely never performed on the piano to anyone except close friends and family. Music was never something that he’d had much of a passion for.

The kid continued to talk…something about bass drums and pep bands. Tony thought about the vigilante Peter had shown them the video of, the one that had supposedly stopped Tony’s attempted kidnappers. He deserved Tony’s thanks, too. But how would one go about thanking a relatively unknown vigilante? Come to think of it, how had Tony not known about this “Spider-Man” before? With all the times he went jogging in Queens last fall, he would’ve thought…

“…robotics team and Academic Decathlon.”

Tony snapped back to attention. “Robotics?” he echoed.

“Um, yeah,” Peter said, tapping the back of his spoon on the table rhythmically. “We, uh…we build robots.”

“ _Really_ ,” Tony gasped exaggeratedly. “Amazing. You know, _I_ build robots.”

The corners of Peter’s lips quirked up a little. “I know, sir. But the robots we build are nothing compared to the stuff that you’ve made…”

“What kind of robots have you built?” Tony asked.

“Well, this is my first year on the team, so we’ve only built one,” Peter said. “It’s, um…it’s kind of a firefighting robot, so it has to turn on the water pump, fill a bucket with water, and dump it out over the fire…it’s not literal fire or water, of course,” he added.

“Sounds like a pretty dexterous robot,” Tony remarked.

Peter nodded. “That’s been the most difficult part, getting the arms to work properly. Me and my friend Matt have been doing most of that work. We went through a lot of different designs before I realized that giving it asymmetrical hands would be _way_ easier,” he said, grinning. “One hand designed for turning on the pump and one designed for holding the bucket.”

Tony nodded approvingly. “That’ll do it,” he said. “I’d just give it human-like hands, but that’s a little complicated for a high school robot.”

“Well, that was my first thought,” Peter said, shrugging. “I came up with a design for them and everything. But…we didn’t have the materials to make it sturdy enough, so it got scrapped.”

“Too bad,” Tony said. “How close are you to finishing the asymmetrical arms?”

“We finally got them fully functional this week!” Peter answered, bouncing in his chair and beaming. “And districts are still a couple weeks away, so I think we’re gonna be in good shape for the competition!”

“That’s great, kid,” Tony said, finding that he genuinely meant it. The kid’s enthusiasm about building a simple robot was refreshing to see after the usual bored or frustrated engineers that Tony had to work with. And from the way he talked, it sounded like Peter knew what he was doing, which was always a bonus.

“Is Matt a freshman, too?” Pepper asked.

“No, he’s a senior, actually. I met him through robotics.”

Well, _that_ wasn’t what Tony expected to hear. Peter wasn’t just working with a friend in his class; he was working with an _upperclassman_. And it was still this kid that had come up with the most effective designs for the robot. Tony had to admit, he was pretty impressed.

“Where do you go to school, kid?”

“Midtown School of Science and Technology.”

“I’ve heard of that one,” Tony mused. “It’s that STEM-focused private school in Queens, right?”

“Yes, sir,” Peter said. He glanced down at his empty bowl of mac and cheese, then at the pot in the middle of the table. “May I have seconds, please?”

“Of course you may. Thank you for asking,” Pepper said.

As Peter spooned more macaroni into his bowl, Tony decided that he was curious enough to ask the kid something completely unrelated to their school discussion. “Kid…what were you doing in Queens this morning?”

“I _live_ in Queens.”

“I figured as much,” Tony said. “But why were you, a teenager, out and about early in the morning on a weekend?”

Peter froze with the serving spoon in midair for a split second before bringing it the rest of the way to his bowl. “I could ask you the same question.”

“I asked you first.”

“Well, I asked you second.”

“So you answer first. Go.”

The kid dropped the serving spoon back into the pot and sat back in his seat. “I was going to the store. My aunt asked me to pick up some things,” he huffed out without looking at Tony or Pepper. Then he stuffed a huge spoonful of macaroni into his mouth.

Tony didn’t buy it. Between the lack of eye contact and the hesitation to answer the question, it was clear that the kid was lying. But the kid still had a mouthful of macaroni, and Tony decided the issue wasn’t worth pushing right now.

“See, that wasn’t so hard,” he said. Peter slumped back in his chair. “Me, I was just on an early-morning jog. I’ve been trying to make it a regular thing.”

“Obviously, the guys who tried to kidnap you knew that,” Pepper interjected. “So maybe now you’ll listen when I tell you that you shouldn’t go jogging by yourself.”

“I’m Iron Man,” Tony griped, rolling his eyes. “I don’t need a bodyguard.”

“Right. And that’s why I got a phone call at 9 o’clock this morning saying that you were unconscious at the hospital following an attempted kidnapping,” Pepper said, giving Tony a fake smile.

Tony let out a resigned sigh. “Okay, so I would’ve been screwed today if it hadn’t been for Spider-Man and Peter,” he admitted. “But that doesn’t mean that I need a _bodyguard_.”

“I never said you did,” Pepper replied. “I just said that you should bring someone with you next time.”

Tony glanced over at Peter, who was finishing his second helping of mac and cheese. “I’ll consider it.”

Peter swallowed the last bite of his meal and wiped his face on a napkin. “Thanks again, Miss Potts. Really,” he said.

“It’s not a problem at all,” Pepper responded.

“We should get you home, kid,” Tony said. “Bet your aunt’s wondering where you are by now.”

The kid glanced at the clock above the oven. “Actually, she’s still at work,” he said. “I can just walk home. It’s fine.”

Pepper shook her head. “We’re not going to make you walk all the way from Manhattan to Queens on your own. We can have Happy drive you home.”

“Happy’s on vacation,” Tony declared, getting to his feet. “I’ll drive you home, kid.”

“A-are you sure?” Peter stuttered, eyes growing wide. “I-I don’t want to inconvenience you–”

“Kid, you saved my ass this morning,” Tony said, cutting him off. “I’d say driving you home is a fair trade.”

“Um…okay,” Peter conceded. “I’ll go grab my backpack.”

As Peter headed into the living room, Pepper shot Tony a puzzled look. “Happy isn’t on vacation. Happy never goes on vacation.”

“Yeah, I know,” Tony said. “Lord knows the man could use one. Kid doesn’t know, though.”

Pepper’s expression softened, and she gave Tony a quick peck on the cheek before starting to clean up the dishes from lunch. “Have fun, Mr. Stark.”

“Always, Ms. Potts.”

* * *

The car was quiet. Too quiet for Tony’s liking. He hadn’t volunteered to drive Peter home just to sit in awkward silence with him the whole trip. He glanced over at Peter to see if his face was buried in his phone or something, but no – the kid was just staring out the window. Well, if Peter wasn’t going to break the silence, then Tony would.

“So, do we need to stop and pick up that stuff you were supposed to get this morning?” Tony asked.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Peter jolt out of his stupor and look in his direction. “Uh, what?”

“The stuff. For your aunt.”

“What stuff?”

“Don’t remember? That’s fine,” Tony smirked. “I didn’t believe that ‘I was going to the store’ story, anyways.”

He glanced at the passenger seat for a moment; Peter was stiff as a board and staring directly ahead. “You wanna try telling me what you were _really_ doing?”

“I…I was going for a jog. Just like you,” he offered.

“No one goes jogging with their backpack, kid. And that’s not something so embarrassing that you’d lie about doing it.” He paused for a moment, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “What’s in that backpack, anyways? Drugs? Alcohol?”

“N-no!” Peter spluttered.

“C’mon, kid, it can’t be any worse than the things I did at your age,” Tony said. “Promise I won’t turn you in if you tell me. Though, I can’t let you hang onto that stuff. Trust me, you’re better off without it.”

“ _No_ , Mr. Stark,” Peter said indignantly. “There’s nothing illegal in here.”

Tony sighed. “Alright, I believe you, kid,” he said. Considering how the kid had behaved the rest of the day, he found it hard to believe that he would really be involved in anything illegal. “If you weren’t doing something illegal, then why can’t you tell me about it?”

“I can’t just tell you why I can’t tell you!”

“I don’t see the harm in it.”

Now it was Peter’s turn to sigh. “It’s…it’s complicated, okay? And personal. It’s not even something I would tell my best friend about, so…I’m definitely not going to tell…” Peter paused, as if trying to find a good descriptor for Tony. “…you.”

“Right, I get it, you’re not gonna share your deepest darkest secrets with the person you just met. Makes sense,” Tony said. “So tell me more about this Spider-Man, then.”

He figured the ensuing silence was due to Peter’s brain spinning from the complete 180 Tony had done. “Not a big personal secret, right? Easier to talk about,” he said, by way of explaining his train of thought. “How long has he been around? I went jogging in Queens a bunch last fall, but I never heard a thing about him.”

“O-oh. Um,” the kid paused to rack his brain, “he’s pretty new. I think he just started showing up this winter.”

“You met him before?”

“No, sir,” Peter said quickly. “Um, I only know him from that YouTube video. I’ve never seen him in person. Before today.”

“But he’s pretty active in Queens?”

“Uh…yeah. A lot of kids at my school talk about him.”

“Interesting,” Tony hummed. “Maybe I should spend more time in Queens. See if I can catch this guy in action.”

“You…” Peter’s voice was hesitant. “You’re really interested in Spider-Man?”

“Sure,” Tony said nonchalantly. “I like to keep an eye on all the local vigilantes. You never know who might have potential as an Avenger.”

“Wh-what?” Peter said breathlessly.

“The Avengers. Team of superheroes that band together to save the world? You know…” Tony leaned over in his seat. “This may blow your mind, kid, but I’m one of them.”

The kid chuckled weakly. “I-I know that, Mr. Stark.”

“Good. You had me worried there for a sec,” Tony said. “Pepper said you’re an Iron Man superfan, and I’d hate to think that my superfans don’t even know that I’m an Avenger.”

Peter didn’t say anything, and Tony took advantage of the fact that he had to stop for a red light to glance at the kid’s face. Predictably, he was as red as a tomato. Tony smirked and returned his gaze to the road.

They continued to make light small talk for the rest of the trip, with Peter occasionally telling Tony where to turn. Finally, Peter pointed to a tall gray apartment building ahead of them on the right side of the street. “That’s my building,” he said.

Tony pulled up by the curb in front of the building and put the car in park.

“Thanks for driving me home, Mr. Stark,” Peter said, reaching for the door.

“Kid, wait,” Tony said, holding a hand out. “Gimme your phone.”

Peter blinked and furrowed his brow. “Wh-what?” he asked, bewildered.

“I wanna prank text a friend. C’mon,” he said, making a grabbing motion with his hand. The baffled expression still didn’t leave Peter’s face, but he obediently pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and placed it in Tony’s waiting hand.

The phone screen had a crack in it, and when Tony pressed the home button, the home screen immediately came up. “You really should put a passcode on your phone, kid,” Tony commented as he navigated to the messaging app. He started a new message thread and typed in Rhodey’s phone number, one of the few that he still had memorized.

_kidnapped again, honeybear. where r u?_

He held on to the phone for a few moments, waiting for his friend’s reply. Rhodey was usually prompt about seeing and responding to messages, and this was no exception.

_police station. Save yourself._

Tony snorted and handed the phone back to Peter. “Thanks, kid,” he said.

Peter glanced at the message thread before putting the phone back in his pocket, and the corners of his mouth twitched upwards. He opened his door and slipped out so he could put his backpack on his back. Then, he bent back into the car to look at Tony. “Thank you again, Mr. Stark,” he said. “Um…good-bye.”

“Bye.”

Peter closed the door and started up the walkway to the building’s entrance. He stopped once to glance back over his shoulder at Tony’s car, look surprised that it was still there, and then continue the rest of the way to the door. Only once the kid was safely inside the apartment building did Tony unpark the car and drive off.

* * *

Rhodey joined Tony and Pepper for dinner that night, during which Tony and Pepper explained the full story of the morning’s events. Naturally, this meant dinner was followed by Rhodey’s lecture on how lucky Tony was that Spider-Man and Peter were there, and a reiteration of the point that he should take more precautions the next time he goes jogging.

“By the way, Rhodey, you know that phone I texted you from earlier?” Tony said. “Let me get the number from you.”

“Whose phone number is it?” Rhodey asked as he pulled the number up for Tony.

Tony smirked. “It’s my new jogging buddy’s.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a stupid amount of information that I've made up about Peter's friend Matt that is in no way relevant to this story or future stories in this universe, but I wanted to share it anyways:  
> -he’s been on the robotics team all four years of high school  
> -he’s the best engineer on the team  
> -he wants to major in civil engineering  
> -he’s looking at a bunch of schools with good civil engineering programs, most of which are out of state  
> -he winds up going to one of these out of state schools, so he doesn’t stay in touch with Peter  
> -he got snapped in the middle of taking his last final of sophomore year  
> -they still gave him an A for the course


	3. Dreams Are Meant To Be Shared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Midtown School of Science and Technology, 2016. A couple of months before Civil War.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is this?? I'm updating a fic in a semi-reasonable amount of time?? It's a miracle! But really, I have to give a huge thanks to blondsak for letting me ramble to her about this chapter because that really helped to keep my motivation up :) I was also encouraged by all the lovely feedback I got on the last chapter! I'm glad you all liked it - you can definitely expect to see a sequel to it sometime in the future <3
> 
> As usual, this chapter is a separate alternate universe from the first two, and the chapter title is taken from KISEKI. Enjoy!

“Thank you so much for doing this, Mr. Stark,” the school’s principal said, shaking Tony’s hand. Or was he an assistant principal? Tony had been introduced to at least five staff members in rapid succession when he arrived at Midtown that morning, so their names and faces were all a bit of a blur. Fortunately, unlike most of the events he had to attend, he’d never be seeing any of these people again. So did it really matter if he never learned their names and faces?

For now, though, the maybe-assistant principal was still talking. “The students are all very excited. It’s not often that we get a guest speaker quite as… _distinguished_ as you, sir.”

“Yeah, of course,” Tony replied absentmindedly, shuffling through the cue cards Pepper had prepared for him. Was he going to use them? Highly unlikely. Off-the-cuff speeches were more of his thing. But it didn’t hurt to look over them to get ideas for talking points, and – more importantly – it made him look like he had a reason for not paying attention to what the possibly-not-assistant principal was saying.

“All the students are in the auditorium, Principal Morita,” said a woman that Tony was 80% sure he hadn’t been introduced to. She was about his height, a bit on the chubby side, with frizzy red hair that fell down across her shoulders.

The definitely-not-assistant principal nodded at her. “Thank you, Cheryl,” he said. Glancing at Tony, he added, “Mr. Stark, this is Cheryl Reid, our drama teacher here at Midtown.”

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Reid,” Tony said. He pretended not to notice her slight blush as she shook his hand. She gave him a coy smile before hurrying off to somewhere else backstage.

“I’ll go quiet the kids down and start the assembly,” Principal Morita said. “When I announce your name, Mr. Stark, please come out onstage. Alright?”

Tony nodded, watching the principal head out from behind the curtain to the podium onstage. He sighed. Standing in the wings of a high school auditorium at 8:30 in the morning was the last thing he wanted to be doing today, but he hadn’t had much of a choice in the matter. The idea had been pitched by one of Stark Industries’ PR people, and Pepper had fallen in love with it. She thought it would reflect well on the company to give motivational speeches to high school students, and it might encourage them to seek internships or jobs at SI in the future. Tony had to give a speech at a different high school every day this week, and this was only the first one. And, to top it all off, the only reason he agreed to be the one giving the speeches at all – as opposed to convincing Pepper to do it – was that things had been a little strained between them lately, and he wanted to stay on her good side.

It was going to be a long week.

“…a warm welcome to…Tony Stark!”

Tony plastered on his best press smile and walked out onto the stage to tremendous applause, even with a few whoops and whistles mixed in. He waved at them as he walked to center stage, then headed back to the podium that Morita had abdicated and placed his cue cards on the stand. He was a little surprised at the kids’ enthusiastic response to him – he always remembered high schoolers as being lazy, apathetic jerks – but he supposed Midtown wasn’t called Midtown School of Science and Technology for nothing. These were kids who were interested in science, in engineering, in tech, so of course they’d be excited to hear a speech from a man who had pioneered many scientific and technological advancements in their lifetimes.

Or they just thought it was cool to get to see a famous billionaire superhero in person. Tony wouldn’t blame them.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” Tony began, speaking into the microphone on the podium. He glanced down at the first cue card. “I’d like to thank Principal Morita for inviting me here today. It’s such a pleasure to get to speak to you all.” He paused and drummed his fingers on the edge of the podium, letting his eyes roam over the words on the cue cards. Who on Earth _wrote_ this crap?

“You know what?” he declared, looking up from the podium. “This sounds so _stuffy_ and _boring_. I’m falling asleep just looking at these cards.” He gazed out over the audience. “Looks like I’ve already started putting some of you guys to sleep, too. I see you, blond in the second row.”

The guy that Tony was pointing to bolted upright and stared at Tony. His friends started elbowing him and whispering to him, probably teasing him for getting called out; Tony suspected the kid had been planning to sleep through the talk from the beginning. He smirked and walked out from behind the podium, leaving the cue cards behind.

“Let’s try this again,” Tony called, projecting his voice from the middle of the stage. “Can everybody hear me?”

There was a quiet murmur of assent. “Good, good,” Tony nodded. “So. Raise your hand if you don’t really wanna be here.”

No one in the audience moved. “C’mon, be honest,” he encouraged them. A few brave souls tentatively raised their hands a little. “I’m not judging.” He raised his own hand high, sparking a few murmurs in the crowd and convincing more kids to hold up their hands with confidence. There were fewer hands raised than Tony expected, but still a decent number.

Eventually, he put his hand down, and the kids followed suit. “Yeah, I gotta be honest with you – I don’t really want to be here either. But we gotta be here anyways,” Tony shrugged. “That’s life sometimes. We gotta make the most of it, find a way to make boring things fun.”

“Did you bring the suit?” a kid shouted from the back of the room.

“Did I bring the suit? Yeah, that’s what I’m wearing right now,” Tony joked, tugging on the collar of his suit jacket. “Oh, you meant the _Iron Man_ suit.” He waved a hand dismissively. “Sorry, I tried, but it wasn’t allowed. Something about no weapons allowed on campus. Personally, I think that’s a little unfair. Anything can be a weapon if you think creatively enough.”

Predictably, this got some laughs out of the audience. Tony waited for the laughter to die down before continuing.

“You kids are pretty creative, right? You go to this school, after all. If you’re sitting here thinking ‘I can’t be creative, Mr. Stark, I’m a STEM kid,’ let me just tell you now, that mindset’s not gonna get you very far in this field,” Tony said, slowly walking towards the right side of the stage. “You ever heard the term innovation? ‘Innovation, the pathway to the future.’ ‘Inspiring innovative minds for the next generation.’ ‘Tony Stark, the greatest innovator of our time.’ I’m not sure how true that last one is.” Tony chuckled at his own joke, then began to walk back towards center stage. “Innovation is just a fancy word for creativity. Science and tech people like to use it because it implies that the new developments are improvements. But let’s be real, is the iPhone 6S really an improvement on the iPhone 6?”

The audience laughed again, which Tony was satisfied about. Jokes were an easy way to keep the kids engaged in his talk. He always had to reign himself in a bit in professional settings because the rich elite tended to see humor as unprofessional and tacky, but these kids didn’t care. That made this talk a little more fun than usual.

“Okay, okay, I’m sure you’re wondering by now what the famous Tony Stark is doing standing onstage cracking jokes for a bunch of high schoolers. What’s my point? Why am I here?” He smirked. “Well, for one, Pepper Potts is a very… _persuasive_ woman.” He slipped his hands into his pockets and rocked on his feet. “But, for another…you nerds are the future, so you’d better start acting like it.

“How’d the word nerd end up with such a bad rep? Nerds are the smart people, the super passionate people. They’re the creatives, the innovators. They’re the ones who are gonna change the world,” Tony continued. “People who think nerds are bad are just jealous. They want what we’ve got. What’s so bad about being smart?” He paused and looked across the audience. “Yeah, you’re right. The answer is _nothing_. You, with the bouncy pigtails? You’re a nerd. You, in the back, black hair and glasses? You’re a nerd.” Tony pointed to himself. “Me, Tony Stark? I’m a nerd. We’re all nerds, and it’s about time we embraced that!”

The audience erupted in a round of applause, giving Tony the chance to rest his voice for a little bit. He wet his lips; he would have liked to have a water bottle right about now. Projecting his voice for so long was starting to take its toll on his throat. But the applause was starting to die down, which meant it was time for Tony to get back to his talk.

“Unfortunately, even I, with all my knowledge and nerdiness, can’t predict the future,” Tony said, sweeping out an arm in a grand gesture. Then, he dropped his arm and leaned towards the audience like he was sharing a big secret. “That doesn’t mean I’m not still going to _try_ , mind you.” He chuckled and straightened up. “But if you had asked me 10, 15, 20 years ago where I would see myself today…I never would’ve imagined anything like this,” he shrugged. “Iron Man, the Avengers…none of it had even been _conceived_ back then.

“When I created the first Iron Man suit, all I wanted was to make it out of captivity alive. When I created the second, I just wanted to correct my mistakes. But now, Iron Man has become something greater – it’s my way of using my skills as an engineer to protect the world.” Tony folded an arm across his chest and held up a finger. “Now, before you go getting any ideas, please note that I’m _not_ saying you should all go out and become superheroes. I don’t wanna get sued for child endangerment.” A few kids laughed at that.

“No, seriously. Superheroing is a tough job and a big responsibility. You kids don’t need the weight of the world on your shoulders yet,” Tony said solemnly. “What I am saying is that any – or _all_ of you – could be working at a job that doesn’t even _exist_ yet when you’re all grown up and out in the world. So if you don’t know what you want to do in the future…” He shrugged. “That’s what I did, and I think I turned out alright.”

Tony spread out his arms. “So, at the end of the day, here’s what I’m saying. Be open to whatever possibilities lie in your future. Utilize your talents in a creative way. Embrace your nerdiness, embrace your values, embrace _all_ those things that make you ‘you’!” he proclaimed. “That’s the formula for changing the world.”

Tony stayed in that position for a few moments, letting his words sink in. Eventually, he called, “Thank you, Midtown!”

The kids began cheering and applauding again; Tony stood still for a while, basking in their praise. Once the applause began to die down, Tony walked to the edge of the stage and – groaning a little as he lowered himself – sat down on the edge, letting his legs dangle over the side. He checked his watch – about 25 minutes until the time he’d been told he needed to wrap up by. That left plenty of time for questions.

“I’ve been talking at you guys for a while now,” he said, settling his hands down by his sides. “But I’m sure you have a lot of things you wanna ask me. So…go ahead! Ask away.”

Four different kids immediately shouted out four different questions all at once. “Hey, hey!” Tony said sternly. “One at a time, kids, geez! The paparazzi are more polite than this.”

Tony pointed to a kid in the fourth row with curly brown hair. “You, with the blue shirt,” he said. The kid pointed to himself and tilted his head, and Tony nodded. He asked something, but Tony couldn’t quite understand what he said. “Speak up, kid,” Tony said.

“Um, I asked, what’s the best part about being a superhero?” the kid repeated.

Tony resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He had expected that most of the questions would fall in this ballpark, but that didn’t stop him from becoming a little annoyed that the first question he received had absolutely nothing to do with the speech he had just given.

“I can buy boxers that have my face on them. Next question.”

One by one, Tony called on kids and answered their questions. The vast majority of them were about Iron Man, the Avengers, or superheroing in general, although there was one girl who asked about Stark Industries’ efforts to combat systemic racism within their company. None of the questions were anything more than tangentially related to his speech.

Eventually, Tony got a slightly surprising question from another curly-brown-haired kid. “Are you aware of the existence of ‘vigilante’ heroes, such as the Spider-Man? Have you considered recruiting them to the Avengers, or supporting them in any way?”

“Oh, well, that’s…a great question,” Tony said.

It was, in fact, _not_ a great question, because Tony had never even thought about _interacting_ with vigilante heroes before. He’d heard of them, of course, but he had always – on some subconscious level – considered them to be an entirely different class of hero than he was, so they would stay in their own little circle of heroism and Tony and the Avengers would stay in theirs. Now that he acknowledged the thought in words, he realized how snobby and elitist it sounded. But, in his defense…there were reasons why vigilante heroes stayed as vigilante heroes.

Finally, realizing that his short initial response wouldn’t let him stall for much longer, Tony replied, “I’ve heard about some of New York’s vigilantes, yes. But I haven’t considered recruiting them to the Avengers. I’ve seen some of those YouTube videos of Spidey, and he seems like he’s more suited for taking down common criminals than real Avengers-level threats.” Then he smirked. “I will say though, he could definitely use a suit upgrade from that onesie he’s running around in.”

Most of the students laughed at that, though Tony noticed that little curly hair didn’t. He kept a straight face and stared at the ground until Tony continued speaking again.

“He’s got some neat powers,” Tony commented. “Those webs he shoots from his wrists, they’re pretty unique. And super strength, always useful. Wonder who’d win in an arm wrestling contest, Spider-Man or Captain America?” Before any of the kids could try shouting out their answers, Tony waved a hand dismissively and barreled onward. “Don’t answer that. Point is, Spidey does have a lot of potential as a hero. As an Avenger? Well, there’s a possibility. It depends – on a lot of things. Hell, we don’t even know that _he_ _’_ _s_ interested in joining the team. So, we’ll see.”

Tony hoped that vague, non-committal answer was good enough to satisfy little curly hair. He made a mental note to look more into New York vigilantes like Spider-Man and assess whether they were Avengers material or not.

After answering a couple more questions, Tony was finally interrupted by Principal Morita hopping onto the abandoned podium’s microphone. “That’s about all we have time for today, kids,” he said. “Let’s all give Mr. Stark a big hand for coming out here this morning!”

The kids cheered enthusiastically as Tony got to his feet. He bowed theatrically, then waved to the audience as he walked offstage. Behind him, Principal Morita began to dismiss the students by year, back to their homerooms or study halls or whatever it was they had next.

Tony ran into a couple more teachers backstage who greeted him enthusiastically, introducing themselves as the chemistry teacher or debate coach or physics teacher and talking about how much of a fan they were of Tony’s work. Tony politely shook their hands, thanked them, and strode away purposefully, exuding the aura of a man who had somewhere important to be.

Finally, Tony managed to make it into a hallway outside the auditorium that was blessedly absent of teachers. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath in and out. Dealing with people was exhausting sometimes. Having to do it so often was just an unfortunate consequence of being a celebrity. He relished in the feeling of finishing a public appearance and finally being able to recharge away from everyone who wanted to–

“Excuse me…Mr. Stark?”

Tony started at the sound of the young voice beside him. It was little curly hair – the kid who had asked about the vigilantes. He was gripping tightly onto the straps of his backpack, and he wouldn’t quite meet Tony’s eye.

“Can I help you, kid?” Tony asked curtly.

The kid took a deep breath. “If – if you knew that he was interested…would you really consider supporting Spider-Man?”

Tony raised an eyebrow. “Why d’you ask?”

He swallowed. “I…I know Spider-Man. When I told him that you were coming to talk at my school…he asked me to, to ask you about…um, creating a partnership?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Look, kid, I don’t know what you’re hoping to accomplish by making up a story like that–”

“No! No, I-I’m not making it up, I swear!” the kid exclaimed rapidly, his voice pitching up a few keys. He grabbed Tony’s arm before he could turn away. “Look – look, he didn’t think you’d believe me, right? So I brought proof.”

Tony attempted to pull his arm away, but the kid had a surprisingly strong grip. Reluctantly, he turned back to face little curly hair. Now that he knew he had Tony’s attention, he seemed a lot calmer; he swung his backpack over his shoulder and rummaged through it one-handed for a few moments before finally pulling out a small container of some sort. He zipped up his backpack and held the container out to Tony.

“And what’s that supposed to be?” Tony asked. He folded his arms, obstinately refusing to take the container from the kid.

“It’s web fluid,” the kid said, continuing to hold it out to Tony. “Y’know…the stuff that he uses to make his webs?”

“Web…fluid?” Tony echoed doubtfully. “And he just…produced it and bottled it up for you? If he could do that, he oughta be mass producing it by now. He’d make a killing.”

The kid scratched his cheek. “I mean, with the cost of the ingredients to make it and all, I don’t know how profitable…” His eyes suddenly widened. “W-wait, it’s not – the web fluid isn’t _organic_ or anything! It’s made synthetically. He has these little, um, mechanisms on his wrists that hold cartridges of web fluid, and when he fires it out it’ll congeal into sticky threads like spider silk. It’s really important that it stays in an airtight environment like these cartridges” – he waved the container in his hand, which Tony was now curious enough about to take from him – “oh. Um, it’s important that the fluid stays in an airtight environment until it’s used because hydrogen is used as one of the primary bonding agents in the fluid, but once it’s exposed to the oxygen in the air the hydrogen bonds start to weaken. It’s great for the webbing because it adds more flexibility to it, but–”

“Kid,” Tony said, interrupting him before he could ramble any longer. “How do you know so much about the chemical composition of Spidey’s web fluid?”

The kid froze. Then he seemed to shrink in on himself. “I, um. I guess…I help him manufacture it? A little?”

Tony looked away from the container of web fluid and scrutinized the kid. He was pretty small and lanky, and he had a very young-looking face. Unless he had skipped _several_ grades – which, in all fairness, Tony had done back when he was in school – there was no way this kid was an upperclassman. Either way, to synthesize a material like this web fluid and understand its chemical properties – even if Spider-Man had been the one to actually come up with the formula – that was pretty impressive for someone so young.

“How old are you, kid?” Tony asked.

The kid blinked. “Uh, four…teen? I’m a freshman.”

Tony nodded in acknowledgement. “You have a pretty good understanding of chemistry for a freshman,” he commented.

The kid’s face turned a little pink. “Oh…um…I just really like chemistry.”

“You got a name, Chemistry Kid?”

“I-I’m Peter,” he stammered. “Parker.”

Tony clapped his hands together around the cartridge of web fluid. “Alright, Peter Parker,” he declared. “Lemme get Spidey’s phone number from you. We need to have a little meeting.”

Peter perked up a little. “You mean – you want to work with Spider-Man?”

“I haven’t decided anything just yet,” Tony shrugged. “But I’d like to meet with him in person to discuss the possibility.”

“Oh. Well…Spider-Man doesn’t actually have a phone,” Peter said apologetically. “When we talk, it’s either in person or on social media. I can contact him for you?”

“Alright, do that,” Tony said. “Ask him to meet with me at Avengers Tower this Friday. Let’s say…3:30. That’s after school lets out, right?”

“W-w-well, that-that doesn’t really matter for Spider-Man,” Peter stuttered. “H-he’s not–”

“I want you to be there too,” Tony interjected. Peter stared at him, wide-eyed. “If you’re available, that is. We’ll all…discuss partnerships.”

The kid continued to stare at him, and his mouth opened and closed a few times, like he didn’t really know how to respond.

Tony smirked. “I’ll send you an email if anything changes.” Then he clapped Peter on the shoulder. “Now, don’t you have some class to be getting to?”

Peter blinked. “I – um – yeah. I’ll-I’ll just…” He grabbed the cartridge of web fluid out of Tony’s hand. “Spider-Man asked for this back!” he explained as he hastily backed away from Tony. When he almost tripped over his own feet while walking backwards, he turned around and began sprinting down the hall.

Tony watched him go with amusement, slipping his hands back into the pockets of his suit. He added two more mental notes to the list in his head: figure out how Midtown students’ email addresses were constructed, and talk to Pepper about the possibility of starting an internship program for high schoolers at SI.

It was still going to be a long week…but at least now he had something to look forward to at the end of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be focusing on other projects throughout the month of February, so don't expect a new chapter of this story until March. Thanks for your patience!


	4. Gain More If We Give

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **A rooftop in Queens, 2016. During the events of Civil War.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The concept of time is meaningless, and as the days and weeks blend together due to the repetitive, restricted nature of quarantine, the line between March and April has blurred until there is no concept of date, no restriction of time, merely the suggestion of our lives slowly slipping away with every tick of the second hand as it moves around the clock in an endless loop, indiscriminate of start and end.
> 
> So no, I'm not updating a month later than I promised. Shut up.

Tony landed quietly on the rooftop, only attracting the attention of a few pigeons that had been roosting on its edge. As the birds flew away, Tony gazed out over the mostly empty streets of Queens.

It had been a long time since the last time he set foot in this borough. His latest research project had him dispatching the suit to Queens fairly often, but Tony didn’t think he’d been to Queens himself since that presentation he did to kick off the Stark Expo back in 2010. He’d never had a reason to come back here…until now.

Good ol’ Captain Righteous and his crew had refused to sign the Sokovia Accords, and now Tony, Nat, Rhodey and Vision had less than 36 hours left to apprehend them. This was a fight that they couldn’t afford to lose. Four rogue Avengers who knew the secret identities of Iron Man, Black Widow, and War Machine and didn’t part with them on good terms? That was the perfect recipe for disaster.

Tony had been surprised when he read that the Accords, for all their rules and regulations regarding the Avengers and enhanced individuals, included a clause that no one – hero or enhanced – would be required to give up their civilian identity. So many people didn’t trust superheroes precisely because they all kept their civilian identities secret. He was glad that at least the United Nations were willing to respect their privacy and security by not forcing them to give those up. If only he could trust that his ex-teammates would do the same.

But the fact that he couldn’t was exactly the reason that had led him to this rooftop in Queens. They needed more people on their side if they wanted to ensure that they would capture Cap and his buddies. While Nat was off convincing that Black Panther guy to join their little posse, Tony had his sights set on a Queens-based vigilante who had been dubbed “Spider-Man”.

He’d been watching Spider-Man for a while, actually. Back before any of this Accords nonsense started, Tony had learned of the guy by watching a video of him posted on YouTube. He had immediately been intrigued by the guy’s powerset and started doing more research on him. Tony probably could have figured out Spider-Man’s secret identity if he wanted to, but Spider-Man had just as much of a right to keep his identity secret as Tony himself. He had always been planning to seek the guy out someday and invite him to join the Avengers, but someday arrived much sooner than Tony had expected.

Based on Tony’s observations of Spider-Man, it was a still little early for him to be patrolling. But based on videos and images of the guy on social media, as well as Tony’s own field research, this was smack in the middle of his usual territory. FRIDAY was in enhanced reconnaissance mode, filtering out anything that wasn’t a quippy spider-person or a crime that might attract one.

At first, Tony was crouched on the roof, preparing to take off at a moment’s notice. However, as the time ticked by, he shifted from crouching to sitting to lying on his back, staring up at the sky. Nat had probably already recruited the Black Panther guy and briefed him on the mission by now. Tony still hadn’t even _found_ the guy he was planning to recruit. Was this a bad idea? Maybe. Spider-Man would be a great asset to their team, but he was no use to them if Tony couldn’t find him…

Suddenly, a shriek pierced through the air, but it was quickly cut off. The sound was loud enough that Tony probably would have heard it even without FRIDAY’s help. He scrambled to his feet, hoping that the person who shrieked had only been cut off by being gagged rather than…well, a more violent alternative. “FRI, take me there.”

As he took off, FRIDAY brought up a map on his HUD highlighting the route he should take and played him the audio feed from the location – an alley a few blocks away. “Don’t even think about calling for help, buddy. You draw anyone’s attention here, or punch a single number on that phone, and your pretty little girlfriend gets a pretty little stab wound.”

There was a muffled noise of some sort that Tony guessed came from the girlfriend. He was relieved to hear that it didn’t sound like she was hurt yet. FRIDAY decreased the power to his thrusters as he approached the alley, allowing him to land on a rooftop and observe from above without being heard.

As he expected, there was a guy in the alley with his hand clapped over the woman’s mouth. FRIDAY helpfully highlighted on his HUD the knife that was being held to her torso. A few feet away, another guy was standing with a phone in one hand and the other held up in a placating gesture. Hopefully, Spider-Man would stop by soon, save the woman and her boyfriend, and then Tony could follow him and ask for his help.

“Look, man, I don’t have any cash on me,” the boyfriend said. “I’ll give you my phone, okay? Just let her go.”

“I don’t believe you,” snarled the mugger. He pressed the knife into the girlfriend’s stomach, making her whimper – it wasn’t quite enough force to break the skin yet, but she was surely feeling some pressure. Where was Spidey when this girl needed him? “How’re you gonna treat your little girlfriend to dinner if you don’t have money to pay for it?”

“She’s not my girlfriend, dude! She’s my sister!” the guy protested. “She’s visiting from college, so we were just taking a walk–”

“I didn’t ask for your life story!” the mugger snapped, pressing the knife harder into the girl’s stomach, drawing a bit of blood, and now Tony had seen enough. Muggings were normally a little below the type of threat that Iron Man handled, but seeing as Tony was here and Spider-Man was not, he wasn’t about to stand by and let a woman get hurt just because he was hoping Spider-Man would swing by and take care of it.

Tony gave himself a little bit of thrust to get himself off the roof and then allowed himself to drop down into the alley, next to the mugger. “Hey, buddy. I’m gonna have to ask you to drop the knife,” he said, aiming at the mugger with one hand.

The mugger’s jaw dropped and so did the knife, clattering to the ground. “Holy shit,” he whispered. He let go of the girl and took a few steps back, raising his hands defensively. “I’m not fighting Iron Man!” Then he turned to flee.

“Maybe you should’ve thought about that before trying to mug somebody!” a cheerful voice called from above. A blur of blue and red dropped down from above, landing right in front of the mugger. “That’s for you,” he said, doing something to the mugger that Tony couldn’t see from his angle. “Now, stay!”

The figure covered the mugger’s feet in sticky white webs, keeping him from lifting them. Then he stepped out from behind the mugger, confirming what Tony had already suspected: the figure was Spider-Man.

“Thanks for the assist, uh, Mr. Iron Man,” Spider-Man said, giving Tony a little wave. Damn, he sounded young. “Are you alright, miss?” he asked the girl.

“It’s just a little nick,” she said. “Not even bleeding anymore. Thank you so much. Both of you.”

“Anytime,” Spider-Man replied. “But you might wanna call the police to come get that guy,” he said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at the mugger.

“I can do that,” said her brother. “Thank you.”

The siblings left the alley, the brother dialing 911 as he walked. Tony turned back to Spider-Man, but he wasn’t standing in the middle of the alley anymore. He quickly glanced around and realized that Spider-Man had jumped onto one of the walls and was crawling up the side of the building. Tony had already known that Spider-Man could stick to walls, but it was still surreal to see the ability in person. He was so impressed that he almost forgot that he needed to talk to the young vigilante.

“Leaving so soon?” Tony called out to him.

He stopped and looked down at Tony. “I came here to stop a mugging, but, uh, I guess you beat me to it.”

Tony shrugged. “You snooze, you lose.”

The vigilante didn’t keep climbing immediately, though. Instead, he stared at Tony for a few moments before blurting out, “Why did you get involved with a mugging? I thought Avengers usually deal with, like…world-ending threats.”

“Relax, Spidey, I’m not moving in on your territory,” Tony chuckled. “I was just in the area and I thought I’d lend a helping hand.”

“Oh,” Spider-Man said. “Why were you in the area? Are you – are you, like, guarding Tony Stark or something?”

“Nah,” Tony said, engaging his thrusters. He lifted himself up off the ground so that he was hovering at the same height as Spider-Man. “I was looking for you, actually.”

“Um,” the vigilante said eloquently. “Why?”

“Just wanted to chat,” Tony said. “How’s the roof sound?”

Without waiting for an answer, he increased the power to his repulsors and shot upwards, doing a little roundabout arc in the air just because he could. Then, he landed on the roof of the building that Spider-Man had been climbing up the side of. Spider-Man had already made it onto the roof by the time Tony landed, and he stood facing Tony with his arms folded. He kept shifting where his hands rested on his arms for a few moments before finally just tucking them underneath his armpits.

Up close, Tony marveled at just how shoddy Spider-Man’s costume looked. It was merely a red hoodie with the sleeves cut off and a spider logo drawn on with permanent marker, worn over a blue sweatshirt and sweatpants. Then, of course, there was the mask – every superhero’s staple gear – which just looked like a couple of red pieces of fabric stitched together with some holes cut out for the guy to stick a pair of swim goggles through. Tony didn’t know what purpose they served besides making him look bug-eyed. Overall, the thing looked like a middle schooler’s art project – or the most budget costume that a broke college student could afford. He was glad that he had a briefcase with a brand-new suit for Spider-Man to wear waiting back at the Compound; he was clearly desperately in need of a wardrobe upgrade.

But Tony was getting ahead of himself. “You’ve got a neat little gig going on around here, Spidey,” he began. “Fighting crime, helping people…preventing car accidents.” He held a hand out and a holographic screen appeared above it, displaying a video of Spider-Man swinging down to stop a car from crashing into a bus. “Takes a massive amount of force to accomplish that. Not bad, kid.”

“What do you want, Mr. Iron Man?” Spider-Man asked tersely.

“Oh. Cutting right to the chase, I see,” Tony said, closing his hand to make the holographic screen turn off. “Too bad. I was going to compliment you on that spider-webbing of yours. Incredible tensile strength. And I’m very curious about how you manage to stick to walls like that – some kind of adhesive in your gloves, or–”

“Look, Mr. Iron Man, it’s really neat to talk to you, but can we do this some other time?” Spider-Man interrupted him. “There are people out there who need help, and I’d like to get back to helping them.”

“Why?” Tony asked, folding his arms. Here was the heart of the matter – the reason why he’d wanted to talk to Spider-Man personally rather than just leaving a message for him somewhere the vigilante was bound to see it. Anyone could put on a mask, help people out of danger, and call themselves a superhero. The only way to tell the true heroes from the posers was to know why they were trying to be heroes in the first place. “What’s your M.O.? What motivates you to put on that onesie every day and go sock criminals in the face?”

“It’s not a onesie,” he muttered. Tony waited. Eventually, he sighed and said, “I haven’t had these powers for very long. And I can’t – I can’t just go out there and start using them in my everyday life, because then everyone would know. But I…I feel like…if you can do these things, but you don’t, and then bad stuff happens…that’s your responsibility.”

Tony nodded approvingly; it was surprisingly mature reasoning for such a comparatively inexperienced superhero.

Spider-Man shrugged and uncrossed his arms, taking a step backwards. “I better get going. It was nice to meet you, sir.”

“Hang on, Spider-Man,” Tony said. The vigilante paused mid-step, still facing Tony’s direction. “You ever been to Germany?”

“No,” Spider-Man said hesitantly.

“How’d you like to change that?”

“Uh – what?”

“How would you like to come to Germany with me?” Tony asked, spreading out his arms in an inviting gesture. “There’s some trouble over there, and I could use some back-up.”

“I – I can’t go to Germany,” Spider-Man stammered, shaking his head.

“Why?”

Spider-Man looked away from Tony and started fidgeting with his hands. He wasn’t answering Tony’s question.

“Lemme guess, schedule conflict?” Tony continued. “Not a problem. I know people; I can get you a couple days off work, no problem. Or class, if you’re still in college.” God, he really hoped this guy wasn’t still in college.

Spider-Man sighed. “That wouldn’t help,” he said. “I still live with my, uh, a relative. I can’t just leave h…um, my relative for days with no explanation.”

“This relative doesn’t know about your alter ego?” Tony guessed. Spider-Man nodded. “Well, that’s fair. It’s safer to keep your superhero and civilian identities separate. But…that makes it harder to explain when you’ve gotta disappear to go do the superhero gig.”

“Exactly,” Spider-Man said, backing up to the edge of the roof. “Glad you understand. Sorry I can’t help you out, sir. But I’ve gotta get going. Bye!” he called as he backflipped off the edge.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it!” Tony ordered, running across the rooftop towards Spider-Man. But the vigilante had already fallen out of sight by the time Tony reached the edge, presumably already swinging away. He swore under his breath.

“Uh, language.”

Tony started. Clinging to the wall of the building, a couple of floors below, was Spider-Man. One of his webs was stuck to the wall a few feet above him. He couldn’t believe that Spider-Man actually _heard_ him from that far away – mentally, he added super hearing to the list of Spider-Man’s powers that he knew about.

Out loud, he said, “I’m sorry, did you just say _language_?”

Spider-Man shrugged. “You shouldn’t curse. Sets a bad example for the children,” he said in a teasing tone.

“Well, there aren’t any kids around, so I can swear all the fuck I want,” Tony replied, smirking.

Spider-Man snickered. Tony didn’t know if he was just hanging around to joke with him or if he really had listened to Tony’s order; either way, now was the time to propose his plan B. “If you really don’t want your relative finding out about your secret identity yet, Spidey, we’ll have to do this in our civvies.”

Spider-Man jerked his head up to look at Tony. “I’m sorry, _what_?”

“My civilian identity has a bit of influence. I can come up with an excuse for you to take a trip with me as a civilian, easy,” Tony said. “But you’ll have to share your civilian identity with me. Fair trade, right? A secret identity for a secret identity.”

Tony knew that he didn’t _have_ to give up his secret identity for this. Everyone knew that Iron Man was Tony Stark’s bodyguard; Spider-Man wouldn’t question it if he said that he could arrange for Tony Stark to take him to Germany. But Spider-Man was doing _Tony_ a favor, not the other way around. It only made sense that Tony should offer him something in return.

“But…how can I trust that you won’t tell anyone else my secret identity?” Spider-Man asked warily.

“You can’t,” Tony conceded. “But you’ll know my secret identity. So if you find out that I’ve leaked your secret identity, you have full permission to reveal mine to anyone you like.”

“And if I tell anyone your secret identity…then you’ll tell mine,” Spider-Man said.

“Bingo.”

Spider-Man stared at the wall, apparently weighing his options. Tony was glad to see that he was at least considering it. Plan C involved monetary compensation, and he wasn’t really thrilled with the idea of bringing along Spider-Man as a mercenary to go enforce the Accords. He was already planning to give the guy a multi-million dollar new suit if he agreed to come, so –

Huh. Maybe he should’ve told him about that.

“Okay,” Spider-Man said.

“Okay?” Tony echoed.

“I’ll do it,” he continued, “on one condition. You have to promise that you’re not going to – to judge me, or treat me differently, or – or change your mind about taking me with you after you find out my secret identity.”

“Fine by me,” Tony said. It wasn’t the weirdest request in the world – Spider-Man’s suit covered almost his whole body, so he could be practically any race or ethnicity. But Tony wasn’t one to judge people over that sort of thing. “Come on up. This building’s got roof access.”

Tony headed over to the roof access door, which fortunately wasn’t locked. He waited for Spider-Man to catch up, and the pair slipped inside.

“FRIDAY, are there any security cameras in here?” Tony asked as he observed their surroundings. The room appeared to be empty aside from a light and the top of the stairwell.

“None, Boss,” the AI reported.

“Perfect. Retract my helmet, FRI.”

“Boss, as per the Phantom Protocol, I need to confirm that you wish to do this in the presence of someone who is not a trusted individual.”

“Confirm.”

Tony’s helmet retracted into his suit. It was the first time he’d worn the suit without the helmet on since…well, probably since he’d tested the piecewise deployment function of the Mark XLII. Spider-Man didn’t have much a reaction besides leaning back a little bit and whispering a quiet “Holy shit.” Now Tony wished that he’d asked Spider-Man to do his identity reveal first just so he could see the look on the guy’s face.

“‘A bit’ of influence was a bit of an understatement,” Spider-Man said, voice cracking.

_Wait, was that a_ voice crack _? Just how old is this guy?_

“Holy shit,” he said again, shaking his head. “It seems so obvious in hindsight but… _Tony Stark_ is Iron Man. I’m talking to _Tony Stark_. Holy shit. Ned’s gonna flip when I tell him–” Tony glared at Spider-Man “–but, I can’t tell him. Right.”

Tony gestured with a hand. “Well, come on. Mask off. We don’t have all day.”

Spider-Man let out a long, slow exhale. Then, he grabbed his mask by the fabric on his forehead and yanked it off.

Tony gaped.

Where he had expected to see a young adult, a child’s face looked back at him: big brown eyes, ruffled brown curls, pimple-marked forehead, and pale round cheeks. His lips were drawn into a tight line and his brow was slightly furrowed, giving Tony the impression of a shy puppy being introduced to a stranger. Spider-Man was white, and he was _young_.

“Jesus, kid, how _old_ are you? Twelve?” Tony demanded.

“I – I’m fourteen. Fifteen in…in a few months,” the kid said, fidgeting with his hands again.

“Shit,” Tony muttered under his breath. He ran a hand through his hair, starting to regret his decision to recruit Spider-Man – maybe Spider- _Boy_ would be a more accurate name. He wasn’t just traveling out of the country with another adult, he was taking a _minor_ out of the country without telling the kid’s parents what he was really doing. The Accords were supposed to be all about the Avengers taking responsibility for their actions, but this – this would be the exact opposite of responsible.

So this was why the kid had been adamant about making Tony promise not to change his mind after finding out his identity.

But, on the other hand…he was desperate. They couldn’t afford to let the rogue Avengers run free, which meant they needed all the allies they could get. Tony could throw some safety features into the suit on the plane ride over so the kid wouldn’t get himself killed when he got back to fighting crime in the city. As long as no one else found out that the kid was barely high school age, no one would know what a terrible decision Tony was making.

“So, this ‘relative’ of yours…I’m guessing it’s your mom or dad?” Tony finally asked.

“Um, my aunt, actually,” the kid said. “But yeah, she’s my legal guardian.”

Tony’s brain immediately started whirring with possible excuses he could use to take a woman’s nephew out of the country. Science fair? Convention? Internship? Hm, now that was a promising idea. SI didn’t normally do internships for high school students, but Tony didn’t have to mention that to Miss…wait, what was the kid’s last name again? Scratch that, what was the kid’s _first_ name?

“I don’t think I ever got your name, kid,” Tony said.

“Oh. I – I’m Peter. Parker,” he said, sticking out his hand. Tony grabbed it and shook it.

“Tony. Though I think you already knew that.”

Tony clapped his hands together, the clang of metal on metal echoing through the stairwell. “So, Mr. Parker. Here’s what we’re gonna do. You swing on home, say hi to your aunt, start your homework, whatever you normally do. I’ll follow you. But we don’t wanna make this look premediated, so once you’re home I’ll jet back to my tower to put away the suit and come back with a car.” That would also give him more time to figure out what exactly he’s going to say to Peter’s aunt.

“Um, I live in an apartment,” Peter said. “Seventh floor, apartment C.”

“Got it,” Tony said. He commanded FRIDAY to replace his helmet, and the metal slid smoothly back over his face. He nodded at Peter, who put his own mask back on in turn. “After you, Spider-Boy.”

“Spider- _Man_ ,” Peter said petulantly. Tony tried to give him a playful shove towards the door, but the kid jumped forward before Tony could touch him. Then he flung the heavy metal door open with ease and sprinted out onto the rooftop. Tony smirked. He had to admit – the kid had spunk.

“FRIDAY, add Peter Parker to the list of trusted individuals.”

“Added, boss.”

Then Tony headed out into the late afternoon sunshine, hot on the heels of Peter Parker – the youngest person to hold Tony’s biggest secret in his hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I guess this one's a little more of an alternate history AU than canon a little bit to the left? Whatever, the idea sounded cool. Lemme know if there's anything about this universe that confused you - or just that you're curious about - and I'll explain it if I know it.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments, kudos, and feedback are always appreciated! I'm especially concerned with getting characterizations right, so if you have any thoughts on that, I'd love to hear them ♥
> 
> Talk to me over on Tumblr! My main blog is [mala-sadas](https://mala-sadas.tumblr.com/)~


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